Singapore-based Qosmosys has raised $100 million in seed funding to develop lunar lander technology. The company did not disclose its investors, and in a press release posted on its website, the startup said only that it used a "unique protective financing model."
"The structure welcomes a limited consortium of investors, safeguards the interests of all stakeholders, and plans to conduct an initial public offering no later than 2028," the release said.
The company aims to send the ZeusX spacecraft to the moon in just four years, with a second mission in 2029. The spacecraft will consist of three modules: a service module, a lunar lander, and a "lunar integrated large-capacity extraction rover" that will extract lunar resources. That helps explain the spacecraft's massive size: 8 meters tall and 4.2 meters in diameter, it's larger than similar landers such as Firefly's BlueGhost, IntuitiveMachines' Nova-C and Astrobotic's Peregrine.
Although Qosmosys said in February that it had partnered with Airbus Defense and Space to provide technical design and engineering services for the ZeusX concept, there is not much information about the first mission. If all goes according to plan, the spacecraft will be able to put 500 kilograms into lunar orbit and 800 kilograms into the lunar surface.
The startup, led by aerospace executive François Dubrulle, is headquartered in Singapore but has two affiliates in Houston, Texas, and Toulouse, France. Qosmosys says lunar mining, especially the mining of basic minerals such as helium-3, is a core part of its business model.